Thanksgiving survival guide: 4 ways to have a low-stress holiday

There’s the crowded airport with delayed flights, the uncomfortable weekend sleeping in a twin bed in your old bedroom, the overcooked turkey so dry it wicks moisture from the air, and the political discussions competing with equally polarizing football games. As dessert is served, half of the guests leave to stand outside a big box store in hopes of scoring a Black Friday deal.

If any of these sound familiar, you are doing Thanksgiving wrong.

Thanksgiving’s about slowing down for a minute and taking stock of all we have to be grateful for. It should remind us of what’s important in life. It should be low stress.

Here are some guidelines for making your Thanksgiving a little more relaxing, from travel to cooking to Cyber Monday deals.

Don’t duel over outlets: Whether you’re flying home from college or enduring a multi-hour road trip to visit grandmom, you’re participating in one of the busiest travel times of the year. Your phone gives you a welcome distraction and stress reliever, until it runs short on battery.

Forget about the wall sockets and charging kiosks in the airport – they’ll all be hogged. Don’t get caught in a road-trip staredown with the kids over the lone power outlet as traffic turns a two-hour drive into a four-hour endurance sport.

For the airport, snag a powercell 3015c, which is available with Apple Lightning™, USB Type-C™, or Micro USB connections built in. Its 3,000 mAh battery can give most devices a full charge, and you don’t have to sit on the floor by the outlet. In the car, check out the super-fast dashport rq2300, which has two USB ports, featuring one that includes Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 3.0 technology.

Dodge traffic jams and don’t get lost: Maybe last year you got lost trying to take a “shortcut,” or maybe you got sent to the supermarket to pick up an extra can of cranberry sauce and got caught sitting in traffic with everyone else on the same mission.

Either way, the last place you want your phone is on your lap. The minipro window dashmount attaches to your car’s window, keeping it in your field of view while you drive. You won’t get lost and you can dodge some of the traffic jams without taking your eyes off the road.

Keep the chef happy: Thanksgiving is so full of distractions, it’s a wonder that any actual cooking gets done. Family and friends arrive, guests get lost and need directions. It’s hard to stay focused on the recipe at hand and too easy to lose track of how long the green bean casserole has been in the oven.

Phone to the rescue! With the Ventev chargestand 3000c you can charge your phone while keeping it upright or in landscape mode. That means you can easily keep your eye on a recipe right on your phone, and give directions to lost partygoers, all while running the timers needed to make sure everything goes according to plan.

And if it doesn’t, you can always just Yelp restaurants that are still open. That way, it won’t be “the year we only ate sides.” It’ll be “the year we started having that awesome Peking duck.”

Create an out-of-the way place for everyone to charge their devices with a Ventev charginghub r600. It has six USB ports and provides up to 54 watts of power – enough to make sure every phone gets charged while eating the bird.

Bonus: Embrace Cyber Monday shopping: Waking up early to fight crowds on Black Friday seems like a big hassle, but every year, people do it. They wait in line for hours to save money on a handful of limited offerings. There’s a better way. It’s called online shopping.

On Slickdeals.net, users post some of the best deals that any retailer is offering, as well as coupons for stores and restaurants. It rivals what you’ll see during Black Friday, but the deals – which get a bit better on Cyber Monday – are available all year. Amazon – with some exceptions – will match the price of any television you could buy from a competitor. And Best Buy has price-matching designed to compete with online offers.

Just so there’s no fear of running out of juice, use a Ventev wallport pd1300. It’s a 45-watt USB Type-C™ charger capable of charging newer USB Type-C™ laptops, phones, and tablets. It’ll keep you shopping – at home or in the office (we won’t tell your boss).

So let’s do Thanksgiving right. Let’s travel without stress, and multi-task in the kitchen like we always knew we could. Let’s skip the chaos of early-morning shopping. Stay charged. Stay thankful. Spend time with people you love.